Of course, with Israel announcing the building of 2,500 new homes in East Jerusalem a mere two days after Bibi talking to Trump, and 3,000 homes altogether since the inauguration, you don’t necessarily need an embassy move to play hardball with Fatah - saying nothing, which Trump so far has done, as Israel ignores the UN resolution and carries on with settlement building, looks a helluva lot like hardball.
We’ll see. As said before, Israel at this point has two options the way I see it - force the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table in good faith - or create facts on the ground that give Israel the borders that suits its needs regardless of what the Palestinians do - I thought the embassy move would be good leverage to get you to the former - but settlement expansion that the US does not condemn covers you on both counts.
[still, if you’re not going to say anything as settlements expand, eventually you get to the point where you’re admitting the two state solution is dead - when that time comes - quickly one imagines - you lay it at Abbas’ feet - it’s still within his power to negotiate a fair deal for Palestinians, but the window of opportunity is closing. If it comes to that, though, you’re giving all the leverage to Israel - why would they care about fairness? Because the ultimate leverage is American support - Palestinians can’t afford to have America as an enemy, Israel can’t afford to alienate it as a friend - the key to getting a deal done is convincing the Palestinians that the former is much more likely to happen than the latter under this president]
